In the very next post, you say:
IF one bows before, pray to the image, relies upon the image, etc...it's an idol.
You need to acquaint yourself a little better with what the Ark of the Covenant was and how it was treated. It was considered to be the holiest object on earth, and the room in which it was kept was so holy that only one man could enter it, and that only one day a year. When he did, he burnt incense and prostrated himself before it according to a very specific ritual from which he was not permitted to depart at all. The Jews considered that the very presence of God on earth, the "shekinah" or "glory cloud," rested on top of it. By your wackadoodle definition, that makes it an idol times about 20.
unlike Roman Catholics and their idols they claim to be Mary.
That sounds a lot like calumny to me. I know a lot of Catholics, and I don't know any who pray to images or think that an image of Mary is really Mary.
They weren't praying to the ark however. They didn't invoke the name of the ark as Roman Catholics invoke prayers to Mary, etc.
>>unlike Roman Catholics and their idols they claim to be Mary.<<
That sounds a lot like calumny to me. I know a lot of Catholics, and I don't know any who pray to images or think that an image of Mary is really Mary.
Of course no RC is going to admit this idolatry. Ya'll have been told it's "ok".